The action this past weekend has been phenomenal to say the least as anglers have been bagging huge stripers to 28 pounds all weekend long. It started Thursday night when a few lucky guys started hooking some decent stripers near the hatchery on the swimbaits. My reports were that at least three big fish were caught, which I could verify, ranging from 14 to 18 pounds. Two of them were caught as the anglers threw the baits while the third was nailed while trolling. Friday morning things were still heating up as no fewer than four big fish were caught, again, all by swimbaits such as the Ol' Henry, the Assassin and the Bomber Long A.

I showed up at the river Saturday night and was surprised to see so many boats on the water as it is usually pretty quite when I go out. While preparing to launch my boat I spoke to two anglers that had just finished cleaning their catch, two beautiful fish at 16 and 22 pounds. Both fish were caught down river earlier that day while tossing the Bombers. I got the gear rigged and headed straight for my favorite hole. I was trolling a 7 inch Assassin when I got bit by a small fish at just three or four pounds. After releasing him I headed on and soon caught and released another one just under five pounds.

I really didn't want to spend all night catching these smaller fish so I switched baits and pinned on a 12 inch Assassin. It took awhile but I finally nailed a big fish, unfortunately I was in shallow water and it was full of brush and trees. I had the fish on no more than two or three minutes when I felt the line rubbing against what I assume to be a tree. I couldn't maneuver the boat and fight him at the same time so I had to hope for the best. Well, the old fella' won his freedom and while at it he took my lure with him. The line finally gave in and snapped leaving just a frayed end. I know the fish easily went over twenty pounds and he knows I'll be back out there this weekend looking for a rematch. Who knows, maybe I'll be lucky enough to find my lure.

Tommy Garvin of Boulder City caught the big fish for the weekend. Tommy and his friend Brian Smith were fishing just across the river from where I lost my big one, come to think of it, that may have been my fish. I lost mine late Friday, he caught his on Saturday. Tommy had a 7 inch Little Henry, baby brother to the Ol' Henry 2x4, tied to the end of his line while they were trolling. He says that he saw some debris floating on the surface and his line was running right through it so he gave the rod a few quick jerks trying to redirect the lure away from it when all hell broke loose. The big fish hit hard and the rod bent in two. Tommy reared back to set the hook and the fight was on. Well, I doubt that he realized it at first but as the big fish began to run it soon became evident that he had only 20 to 30 feet of line left on his reel. He yelled at Brian to throw the boat in reverse and follow that damn fish. As luck would have it Brian did just that and he was able to regain some of the precious line. He was finally able to land the big gal and being his first big Striper he decided to keep this one.

He brought it back to Laker Plaza to show the guys and it weighed in officially at 28 pounds. When they cleaned the fish Tommy felt rather bad because it was a female with a belly full of eggs. "Had I known that" says Tommy, "I would have let her go. There's no way that I would have killed her. I thought she was full of trout." It's hard to tell with those big fish. As luck would have it she had only one trout in her belly. Also caught by a Laker Plaza regular were a 14 pounder, which was kept to eat, and a 20, which was released. When you add a bunch of smaller fish less than ten pounds and a couple of nice fat catfish to the numbers it was a fine weekend indeed.

The action at Lake Mead has picked up as well with a lot of anglers bringing home limits of fish averaging just under four pounds. Topwater bites are taking most of the fish in the early morning hours near the Vegas Wash area. As it warms up the guys are fishing deeper with jigs and those that are lazy are pinning on anchovies. Speaking of the jigs, Laker Plaza has sold quite a few of the Barefoot Gitzem's so now I'm just waiting for the reports to come in.

The bite for bucketmouths has been decent this past week as well. The Bassers are picking the fish out of the coves by working swimbaits through the shallows early in the morning. Most of the guys I spoke to are catching anywhere from 8 to 10 fish a day and are of course releasing them all to fight again. I don't want to give up too much information right now for the largemouth due to a big tournament that will take place on Lake Mead in two weeks.

------------------------------ Okay, as promised I bring the people the Smartlink. In case you've been out of town for the past two weeks or hiding in a cave somewhere the Smartlink is a jewel I found at ICAST this year. Some of you may know the product by its former name, the "Ultimate Luresaver". NiTi, the company that manufacturers the Smartlink have changed the name of the product because the "Ultimate Luresaver" gave anglers the impression that the product was a lure "knocker" or lure retriever. The Smartlink is in fact the farthest thing from a lure knocker/retriever.

Made of nickel titanium, the Smartlink replaces the conventional split rings that attach the hooks to the lure. The links are designed to release the hook when undue strain or pull is placed on the lure. Okay, so now you can ask me, "Ken, if that's the case then won't a large fish simply be able to pull the hook free of the lure, thus being able to swim away to fight again, the whole time laughing at me because I listened to you?" No says I, that will not and cannot happen, IF you follow the basic rules of fishing.

Rule number one; don't ever hammer down the drag on your reel! The reels drag is designed to allow the fish to run, therefore exhausting itself and allowing you to land it.

Rule number two; know your line weight! If you're using 30 pound line set the drag accordingly, roughly one third of the poundage, thus the drag should be set at about ten pounds.

Okay, so you are fishing at Willow Beach using 30 pound line and you hook into a 50 pound Striper. If your drag is hammered down tight and the fish runs chances are, if it's a strong healthy fish, that the initial run may bust your line or at the very least put such a strain on your rig that the odds are now in his favor. If you have the drag set properly and the big fish runs then your line will play out at the ten pounds pull. A few runs like this will wear the brute out quickly thus giving you the advantage. I'm sure all of you have heard stories about 40, 50 or even hundred pound fish being caught on 6 pound line. Yes, I said six. That's because the angler knew how to set the drag and play the fish.

The Smartlink is designed to specifically match the line that you use for a particular kind of fishing. For those of us that fish the big swimbaits for stripers we would want to use links rated at 25 to 30 pounds. Here's where it gets good. Lets say you're trolling those big, very expensive plugs through heavy cover trying to coax that big fish to hit when all of sudden you find your lure snagged on a submerged tree. Your drag is hopefully set so when the lure snags line will of course play out.

So, here's what you have to do next after stopping the boat. First and foremost, you must take the rod and reel out of the equation. Do not hammer down the drag and pull or bounce the rod like you used to in order to try to free the plug. Take the rod and simply point it directly at the lure. Take up all of the slack line. Hold the line against the handle of the rod, if you have to you can tighten the drag. Now give the rod and line a steady pull. The Smartlink will release at 30 pounds of pressure and your 60 dollar plug will come loose from where ever it's snagged. The hook will remain firmly embedded in the tree. So, you loose one hook, but you get the lure back, complete with the Smartlink. I tried it a dozen times or more and it works every single time without fail. This is one item that will replace every split ring on all of my expensive lures.

Ken Marlow, pappystackleshack@yahoo.com

Ken Marlow has lived in the Las Vegas Valley since 1973. He began fishing at Willow Beach for trophy trout soon after moving there and has been hooked ever since. Ken currently fishes twice a week and travels across the Dam to Willow Beach about four times a week to interview anglers and to see what the conditions are like.

Ken writes the weekly fishing column "Let's Go Fishin'", which appears in the Boulder City News, Henderson Home News and, from what he hears, two or three other HBC Publications.